Back Again
by Strager
Summary: This is a sequel for Six Years Later. A little over seven years have passed since and Falad is offered a new job, prompting Rella's return back to Elethia again. And someone, after finally finding what she was looking for is waiting to get her revenge.


**A/N:** After a longer pause I have finally managed to get the first chapter of this sequel to _Six Years Later_ together. I'm afraid the rest of last year was somewhat rough for me and I still haven't gotten my migraine under control -_- But I have had a few more energetic days, which prompted me to finish this chapter. Finally...

The writing pace is most likely going to be somewhat slow again, but I hope you enjoy this story nonetheless. And the first chapter of course :)

1.

The years in exile had not been good to Lady Tremaine. Despite living off on her daughter's wealth (at least one of her daughter's arranged marriages worked to her benefit), her wanderings and travels had aged her less gracefully than the years before. After six and a half years it began to show, no matter how she tried to avoid any physical labor. After all, she couldn't risk detection and therefore she had often had to settle on doing things herself. And once she finally found what she was looking for, she was not taking any chances for anyone but herself possessing it.

Her latest travel destination was certainly not helping her complexion. How anyone would be content with living in this sandy furnace was beyond her. The sand was everywhere. One could not escape it in the cities less alone in the desert. And the sun kept the temperature in unbearable heights. At least her cursed stepdaughter had been sent to a place awful enough, though how Cinderella had managed to survive so well astonished her. The girl had been completely useless when she had been serving them, Lady Tremaine thought as she walked slowly up a dune. Her guide, with their... transport, was waiting at the oasis as she headed towards the well somewhat farther away from it than Lady Tremaine thought reasonable. As despicable as it felt to her, this was unfortunately what she had fallen into, since her search had not borne fruit in the more civilized areas.

Eventually she reached the well and she eyed the run-down thing distastefully. Dubiously she approached the well and looked down seeing nothing but blackness at the bottom. The bucket was down and the rope hung limp. Curling her lips she relucantly grabbed the winch and started turning it, slowly bringing the bucket up. Once it hung above the well, Lady Tremaine took a hold of it and put it down on the edge of the well. She peered into the bucket, holding her breath slightly. A dark oil lamp gleamed in the bottom and Tremaine smiled in triumph.

She had found it!

Finally, she had found it! She would get her revenge on Cinderella and she would teach her younger daughter the consequences of defying her! Lady Tremaine shook her head, clearing her mind. She should not get too exited just yet. So far every plausible way she had tried, had proved to be false. There was no proof yet, that this was any more real than her previous attempts. Going through the information she had gotten about the object, she took the lamp and lifted it up for closer inspection. It was not bad craftmanship, even she had to admit it. It was quite a beautiful piece of work. As according to instructions she brushed the lamp with her other hand, trying to hold her hopefullness in check. But once the smoke started seeping from the tip of the lamp, she could not help a jump of exitement in her heart.

More and more smoke came out of the lamp, starting to swirl in front of her and piling up into a tall column. Once all the smoke had come out, the cloud started to take a shape. In no time, Tremaine found herself facing a tall, bony and bored looking man. He was dressed in extravagant clothing and carried a snake headed staff, which seemed to be made of qold. He had a twisted, black goatee with mustache and dark eyes that were sharp and alert despite his external appearance of boredom. Though, as his eyes fell on to Lady Tremaine, some of his boredom was replaced by intrigue.

Standing at her full height and raising still an elegant eyebrow, Tremaine looked at the man in front of her. "You are the genie of this lamp?"

"Why yes, Madam", the man rolled his eyes. "Or are you seeing any other lamps or genies in the neighborhood?"

"I do not appreciate that tone of voice", Tremaine said glacially.

"My most deepest apologies", the man bowed theatrically.

Lady Tremaine was fairly sure the man did not mean his words, but chose to ignore it for the moment. "If I have understood correctly, you are able to grant me wishes."

The genie sighed in a long suffering tone. "Yes, yes. Three wishes for whoever holds the lamp, with three limitations."

"And what are these... limitations?"

"Making people fall in love is supposedly impossible, I cannot technically kill anyone and bringing people back from the dead is ugly and repulsive."

Lady Tremaine looked at the man questioningly. "You cannot _technically_ kill?"

"You'd be surprised what people can live through", he said smoothly.

Tremaine nodded and pursed her lips. "And anything else is possible."

"Yes", he said giving a long suffering sigh. "Now, what will it be? Beauty? Youth? Riches beyond your imagination?"

"Do you have a name?" Lady Tremaine asked and looked at the genie who looked at her with unreadable face.

"Jafar", he eventually answered.

"Very well, Jafar", Lady Tremaine said and her lips spread into an evil smile. "Make me a powerful sorceress."

xXx

"What?" Rella exclaimed shrugging off from her travelling coat and looking at her husband read a letter that had been waiting for them once they finally got home.

"I've been offered the position of the Ambassador of Elethia." Falad repeated staring at the letter surprised. He certainly hadn't expected that. Due to his family's relations to the Imperial Family he did often get mixed sort of tasks, especially since he was the youngest of the family and his parents and brothers usually forwarded those to him. Of course, after a time of succeeding in those tasks, the Imperial Family had more and more often gone to him straight.

"What happened to Ambassador Garma!?" Rella asked indignantly throwing her hands up.

"He retired I believe."

Rella sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, that's great! So we're off again! It's been like this for _three_ years! First those mediations with Agrabah, then that scuffling at the border and I still don't know why they wanted you there, not to mention the two, three other jobs that were on opposite sides of the country! And now that we've finally gotten home from that last disaster you were needed for, we are sent out _again_!"

As Rella ranted gesturing wildly with her hands while Falad regarded her with a measure of amusement carefully hidden from his wife whenever she would turn to look at him. Two blurry forms dashed through the room to Rella's side and their children tugged her skirt.

"Mom? Mom!?" Yanna said while Tahar tugged her skirt. The seven year olds were looking quite deterimined.

Rella turned to them for a small moment. "Wait a moment, sweethearts. Mommy's yelling at Daddy."

Falad raised his brows and looked at Rella pretending to look overly innocent and incredulous. "Why are you yelling at me?!"

"Because you're there!" Rella shot at him glancing at him sharply.

Falad smirked mischievously and wrapped his arms around Rella. "Well, it's a good thing then that I find you very beautiful when you are angry."

Rella tried to make her objections known but was foiled when Falad pulled her into a kiss. Yanna and Tahar both blinked at them before scrunching their noses and turning towards one another.

"Yuck!" they said simultaneously as their mother giggled. The twins went back to bothering their parents. "Mom! Dad! Will you please listen?"

Rella and Falad looked down smiling. "Of course we are listening, can't you see?" Falad teased them and Yanna crossed her arms and glared at her father while Tahar looked up pleadingly to their mother.

"Mom!"

"Alright, alright", Rella chuckled. "What is it?"

"Can we go riding?" Tahar asked.

Rella looked pointedly at the child. "Is Ilyarr done with his duties?"

"Yes."

"Alright, you can go then."

"Yes! Can we ride with Little Dragon?" Tahar asked hopefully while Yanna looked at Rella and Falad with pleading eyes.

"No." Rella and Falad said at the same time. Despite the first part of his name, there was nothing little about the horse in question but he came very, very close to the second part of his name in personality. Falad, Ilyarr and a few others were the only ones who could ride the horse safely. Rella had a deal with him since Little Dragon had always considered her highly suspiciously, something Rella thought stemmed from her strange ability to understand animals, which was not common in Dherr'eshaan like it was somewhat in Elethia. As part of the deal, Rella wouldn't ride Little Dragon and Little Dragon would be nice to her. He tended to be even a bit nicer to her than usual since he liked Falad.

The children's faces fell slightly at this, but perked up when Falad asked if they didn't want to ride at all and the two quickly ran off to find Ilyarr, an old friend of Falad's who acted as a kind of his personal valet. When they had met again few years ago, Ilyarr had been in a tight spot and Falad had asked if Ilyarr would've wanted a job from him, since he hadn't found anything from anywhere else. By now, Ilyarr was more like family rather than just staff, quite like Rella felt about Corra.

Falad turned back towards Rella. "So, what do you think about this Ambassador business? It would be a long, stationary position."

"Are you trying to placate me with the thought of a quiet and peaceful job?" Rella looked at Falad with a knowing look to which Falad just shrugged his shoulders as an answer. Rella sighed and wrapped her arms around Falad's neck. "Well, I suppose you're right. It would be a calmer place. And we would get see Anastasia and Charles again."

"But?" Falad tilted his head inquiringly.

"I wanted to be home for awhile, just us and nothing else bothering us."

"Well, it is going to take at least a month to sort things out here, so we do have that at least."

Rella nodded. "Yes. And I do like the idea of living in Elethia, too, for a change."

Falad watched Rella carefully trying to gauge if Rella truly meant what she said. After finding that she did, in fact, mean what she said, Falad smiled and nodded. "Alright. I'll take the position."

Rella nodded and then froze as a thought occurred to her. She groaned. "Oh, no! I have to go through the book keeping. It's going to take forever."

Falad laughed and ducked a swipe aimed at him for his laugh. "Come on. You can do that later", Falad insisted and pulled Rella with him towards their rooms. Rella's objections were quickly forgotten.

xXx

Anastasia turned from observing her eldest son, Leopold, practice his fencing when a servant brought a letter to her looking for Prince Charles. As her husband was occupied with his father, Anastasia took the letter and told the servant she'd make sure it found its way to Charles. Anastasia turned the letter in her hand and regarded the imperial seal of Dherr'eshaan curiously. She absently wondered what it was about as she returned to look at her son. Then she remembered that they still hadn't gotten news of who would be the new Ambassador of Dherr'eshaan now that Ambassador Garma had retired.

Now she was really curious and after a congratulating smile for Leopold at his daring stunt, she opened the letter and read it. And smiled brightly and nearly jumped as she read that Falad I'rd'aran was to become the next Ambassador. That would mean that Rella and their children would come to live here as well!

Anastasia smiled at the thought. Ever since they had reconciled seven years ago they had kept close contact and in addition to the hundreds of letters they had exchanged during the years, they had also visited each other a few times. Or rather Rella and Falad had visited them. It was not easy for Anastasia and Charles to leave and visit friends. It would cause a bit of a commotion and they'd have to have made state visits to the Imperial Family in Dherr'eshaan and who knew what else.

Anastasia stayed until Leopold's fencing lesson was finished before she left to take the letter to Charles. Leopold came to walk with her trying to inquire after the contents of the letter only to be foiled at Anastasia's insistence that he'd hear the news at the same time as his father. They found Charles hard at work, bent over his desk and looking over official documents, every now and then signing some of them.

"Charles! There's a letter from Dherr'eshaan. They've selected the new ambassador", Anastasia paused next to her husband. "You'll never guess who they've chosen."

Charles raised his head smiling at his wife and son. "Someone we know? It has to be since you are looking so happy about it."

Anastasia handed the letter to Charles smiling brightly.

"Father, who is it? Mother wouldn't tell", Leopold moving next to his father.

The Prince grinned. "Falad? Brilliant!"

Leopold looked at his parents alternately with wide eyes slightly alarmed look on his face. "Does that mean that his family comes here as well?"

"Of course", Anastasia nearly squealed and laughed silently at the look on er son's face. Little Yanna had been absolutely charmed by Leopold the last time they had been here, a fact that made Leopold avoid her as much as possible. Anastasia found it absolutely adorable. As Leopold sighed and slumped his shoulders as if the world was coming to an end, the parents watching their son could no longer help it and they burst into laughter.

Charles ruffled his son's hair as he made his protests and Anastasia smiled. They were going to have so much fun, she just knew it and started to plan all the things she could coax Rella to do with her.


End file.
